George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes

I just watched the Bones 10th season premier - I was giving a Keynote address at Baylor University last night. It's the kind of episode that's best to watch at home.

Sweets in many ways was the moral center of Bones, mediating between the science of Bones and the spirituality of Booth, and a lot more between them. Even in this episode, his advice to Bones and Booth, individually and together, was crucial in the two rediscovering their relationship after Bones' daring move to get Booth released from prison - which was a really fine piece of acting by Emily Deschanel, by the way.

At some point last season, Sweets looked like he was leaving the show. He broke up with Daisy - which I was sorry to see - and talked increasingly about doing other things in his life. But then he came back, and even spent a night or two with Daisy. Good move.

Episode 10.1 pretty quickly establishers that Daisy is very pregnant with Sweets' baby, even better. They were a great couple, and would have made great parents, which Bones attests to when she tells Sweets he will make a great father.

And now that's been taken away from us and the story. The usual explanation for these sorts of things is that the actor wanted to leave the show. But that doesn't really matter, because this isn't a question of blame. It's a question of mourning what could have been had Sweets been able to continue.

There's a new young FBI agent who has style and is even a little reminiscent of Sweets. But he won't be Sweets. And so the fulcrum of Bones has now changed, to something different from the perfect mix it's been. There are still lots of great stories to be told, especially Booth and Bones, who were just outstanding in every scene they were in tonight. But the show will be missing one central story, which moved everyone, on both sides of the television screen.

About Me

Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication &
Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997),
Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the
subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science
Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).His short stories
have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.Paul Levinson appears on "The
O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"“NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),“Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous
national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of
television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of
Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

e-mail received from a reader:Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom